DEATH THROUGH RESEARCH

Press, Volume LXXIX, Issue 23962, 1 June 1943, Page 3

DEATH THROUGH RESEARCH

* AUSTRALIAN WOMAN BACTERIOLOGIST WORK ON SCRUB TYPHUS From Our Own Correspondent SYDNEY, May 26. The death of Miss Dora Lush, aged 32, a brilliant Melbourne bacteriologist, is a blow to Australian scientific research. Miss Lush was doing research on scrub typhus when a syringe she was using slipped and infected her with the disease. Miss Lush’s work was of great military importance, because troops in New Guinea have been infected with scrub typhus, for which there is no known counteracting serum or drug. Although she knew she was dying, Miss Lush insisted that members of the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute, where she had been working, should take samples of her blood. She died three weeks after infection. Miss Lush joined the institute, in 1934, and after working there for several years went to London to work on influenza at the National Institute of Medical Research, at Hampstead. In England she gained extensive knowledge of typhus. On returning from England last September she rejoined the Hall Institute and began work on scrub typhus. Dr. Harvey Sutton, Professor of Tropical Medicine at Sydney University, said that Miss Lush’s death was a great tragedy. “Her experiments were extremely important,” he added. “One form of scrub typhus is the disease known as Japanese fever. It is a disease contracted through some animal parasite, probably a tick. Scrub typhus is not as well know,n as the typhus contracted from the louse. Many research workers have lost their

lives in typhus research. Not long ago one of my assistants was bitten by an infected rat and would probably have died but for sulphamlamide. Research in these dangerous diseases is no parlour game.” Amongst Australian scientists who have lost their lives as a result of their medical research are Dr. W. Mac Murray, of Sydney, who also lost both hands and became blind as a result of X-ray research; Dr. Clendinnen (Melbourne), a pioneer of X-ray research; Dr. Hall Edwards (Western Australia), who also lost sight and one arm and one hand in X-ray research; Dr. F. R. Forster (Sydney) a pioneer of dental radiology; James Young, of Sydney Hospital, a radiologist, who also lost fingers on both hands; and Dr. HerschelF Harris and Dr. Ayres, X-ray scientists.